How It All Adds Up

Personalizing a loft comes at a price—but it doesn’t have to be sky-high.

Daniel Yucht and Carmelita Naval didn’t want a cookie-cutter hotel wedding—they wanted to get married in a loft. “I thought it would actually be cheaper, but we found out that wasn’t the case,” she says. The couple set out with a budget of $35,000, a relatively low figure. (According to a survey of city planners, the average cost of a loft wedding in Manhattan hovers around $100,000.) “If you’re up-front about your budget, many vendors won’t do a crazy markup. A lot of them offered cash incentives—5 percent off the top—which made a difference,” she says. For the most part, Daniel and Carmelita paid for the event themselves: “Our parents gave us a few thousand dollars. They thought they were being very generous. People who don’t live here don’t realize how expensive things are.” The enterprising couple pulled off their nuptials at Studio 450, in Manhattan, on Saturday, June 14, 2008. Sure, they were a bit over budget, but sometimes you have to rest your eyes from the bottom line.